The head of football on the continent made a historic first trip to the island to check up on the progress of building a regional technical centre to help the progression of football.

The Vava’u islands are located 240 kilometres north of the main island of Tongatapu and the new technical centre is being built on the main island, Neiafu, which has a population of approximately 10 000 people.

The centre will include a natural grass pitch, changing rooms, toilets and an administration building, all in the village of Makave.

See photos of the ongoing construction at the bottom of the article.

Chung praised the work that the Tonga FA and the constructors had been doing:

“I think you are doing a very good job, and I urge you to create and invest in even more football activities especially for the youth,’’ Chung said, according to the Tonga FA website.

“It is a good idea to create fun football so you can bring more communities in to start with small sided games, futsal, beach soccer then elite soccer. Look at the example of Just Play and it’s festival, and that will bring more youth to participate.

“We are all aiming to grow football and create quality players. The OFC Education Centre has launched here in Tonga, and we look forward to hearing what improvements it can have on programmes here.

Vice President of Vava’u football Sione Tuionetoa Lau told the Tonga FA website:

“At the moment, the people of Vava’u are talking about football as they witness the commencement of construction, and I can assure you, the number of Vava’u people playing football will increase.”

Hopefully, the building of the centre will bring new players to the game so football in Tonga can thrive.